What Is Writing?

Remember Thanksgiving in grade school and learning about the Pilgrims? It was fifth grade, you were sick and tired of hearing about Columbus and his crew, how they sailed the ocean blue, and how they were best friends with the Indians, when it happened. Your teacher asked you to get out your pencil and notebook then said, “Class, for the next six weeks you are going to write a journal as if you were one of the first Pilgrims to settle the colonies.” A collective sigh was generated by the entire class and let out in one giant release of resignation, except for that one kid in the front of the class who opened his notebook, with the smell of the wind coming in off the ocean filling his lungs, the sand molding to his sea weary footsteps, and a vision spreading out before him of a future civilization captured in the all-encompassing witness of his pen.

I was that kid, and for me that was where writing became meaningful, where it became a part of who I was. Since that moment of awakening, writing has taken on many facets in my life. Writing is where I go to find meaning, where I go to make meaning, and has become a venue for discussion with myself on the what I believe. When I write I write in several different genres. I write poetry to help distil single moments in life or to ask questions about what is important; I write fiction to explore new feelings, places, or perspectives; I write creative non-fiction to explore the past; I write essays for class to explore different aspects of Literature, make meaning out of a text, or to analyze a text.

This blog is going to explore what writing is for an incoming freshman and will introduce different avenues to a personalized approach to writing and composition.

Here is a youtube video about writing featuring Peter Elbow.

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